


Angel of the sea

by Tianifloof



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Link hasn’t met sidon, Marine hospital reader, My First AO3 Post, Possible smut, Sidon in a tank, Slow Romance, Talking Link (Legend of Zelda), The Author Regrets Nothing, mipha’s alive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:47:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26397388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tianifloof/pseuds/Tianifloof
Summary: You, ____, have always loved marine animals. From tiny fish to gigantic whales, you loved aquatic animals with a passion. Down to the point where you had taken a course in marine biology during your college days, and joined the Hylia (you don’t really know why it was called hylia) marine hospital to help these lovely creatures. But your favorites had to be the sharks that came in. Sure, they weren’t as smart as seals or dolphins, but they were underrated beauties of the sea. Despite their poor reputation because of the jaws movies and such, they were rather docile in reality.But what do you do when you find a strange scarlet shark on the shoreline with the large fishing spear of a poacher in its side? And even stranger... it looks... human?
Relationships: Prince Sidon/Reader
Comments: 10
Kudos: 92





	1. Poachers and a red shark

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Scarlet Dreams](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18098531) by [SidonLove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SidonLove/pseuds/SidonLove). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today was one of your rare days off from the marine hospital, but it wasn’t going to go as you planned

You couldn’t remember the last time you’d gone to your local beach. After all, you were never the one called in whenever someone called for beached animals such as dolphins and turtles. Link and his little squad were the ones who took care of calls on the shore, and you were one of the many veterinarians who took care of the poor creatures who came in. But you weren’t mad. In fact, you were content with taking care of your own little gam of sharks, as well as tending to all the other animals who came into the hospital. You did, however, feel sorry for the various animals which came into your office. Seals, dolphins, seagulls, one of your very own babies had been brought in because they were harmed by illegal poaching, being caught in in plastic waste or oil spills, etc. You honestly feared what would have happened to these poor things without your or Olivia’s care. Olivia was your senior, and was also responsible for all of the big treatments, while you were primarily responsible for rehabilitations. However, you were sometimes called in when something big wouldn’t calm down.   
  


Now wasn’t the time to think to think about work. Today was your day to visit the beach. It was quiet for once... of course it was, it was a rainy day. You never understood how link and the others managed to handle beaches in broad daylight. They were too loud, The sand and water were always crowded with people, and people freaked out whenever something big like a dolphin got beached. You preferred the quiet solitude of the nursery pools, helping to rehabilitate your patients and even chatting to them (well, yourself) about your day. It was peaceful. Well, unless the seals were whining about their meal times or Harry, the local seagull, was stopping by to see if he could snag some carp. But it always managed to brighten up your day, unless you had to get the news that one of your patients couldn’t make it through the night.... ‘ _stop thinking about it,____!’_ You mentally scolded yourself, lightly bapping your cheek to get your mind off of work _again._ Maybe it was because of the beach. The sounds of the waves being hit by rain, rolling up onto the shore, sometimes even bringing little treasures with them such as shells or seaglass. It was relaxing, and if it weren’t for the fact you could possibly be soaked, you might even be able to fall asleep here.   
  


You continued walking along the beach, feeling the cold rain hit your boots and umbrella above you. Every now and then you could even see a little bit of sunshine peek through the clouds above you. But, as you strolled through the rain, something caught your eye. _Bright red._ You couldn’t properly make out what it was from a distance, but it’s color definitely struck out amongst the cool and desaturated colors of the area around you. You slowly made your way towards it, and you froze as you finally made out a silhouette. _A pole, sticking out from it’s body. A crest similar to that of a hammerhead shark on its head. The figure of a tall, muscular man._  
  


You should’ve been scared, you didn’t know what it was. It looked human but you could tell it wasn’t. But you could see a pool of crimson red seeping from it into the sand below, and that immediately sent you running towards it. Once you got close enough to stand right beside the beached figure, you could immediately see why it was bleeding. _A spear. Right in the left side of its torso._ “Poachers...” You muttered to yourself, and knelt down to the large, red creature beneath you. It was wheezing in pain, sharp breaths rising from its body as it trembled on the ground. ‘ _Alive..._ ’ you thought to yourself, and you pulled your phone from your pocket. Link was the best person to call right now... but what if he didn’t believe you? Then again, who could believe a crazy statement like _‘Link, get the crew! There’s this weird shark person washed up on the beach!’_ Ridiculous... but you needed to try. You quickly dialed up your co-worker’s number so you could get some people over here to help... whatever this thing was. “Hey, shark bait. What’s up?” You could hear that link seemed a bit worried on the other end of the phone, and he should be. You only ever called him when there was a problem.   
  


“Get the rescue crew to the beach ASAP. We got a poacher victim who’s still breathing.” You quickly informed him of the situation, of course without the full details. You doubted you’d be able to get this poor guy any help if link knew it looked like a person. “Got it, we’ll be there in 20 minutes. _Alright people, let’s go!-_ “ The call abruptly cut off as your coworker hung up. The easy part was over... now for the hard part. Waiting. You heaved a sigh, and slid your phone back into your pocket as you turned your attention back to the creature in front of you. You hadn’t even noticed before that it had opened its eyes, and was now staring intently at you. Its eyes formed slits, and you could see it- no... _his_ face contort into a snarl. You’ve seen this sort of behavior before, when you were first dealing with the sharks in the hospital. He was afraid. He was trying to intimidate you so you wouldn’t hurt him. You backed away a couple of inches, and raised your hands to show you held no weapons. “Hey, hey... easy big guy. I’m getting you help, I promise I’m not a threat.” You couldn’t tell if he understood you or not, so you put down your umbrella and slowly reached towards his head. He seemed to back away for a moment, or at least he tried with the spear in his side, but you still continued to reach towards him.   
  


It took mere moments before you closed the gap, gently placing your hand on the crest atop his head. You did this often with your gam, whenever they would get rowdy and aggressive. It was how you showed no threat, that they were safe in your hands. His eyes slowly dilated, and his expression returned to a neutral state. Well... as neutral as neutral could be when one was in pain. “Like I said... I promise I’m not a threat, big guy...” You reassured the large creature, who now seemed to lean into your hand. “My friends are on their way... they’re not gonna hurt you either... we’re gonna get you taken care of. I promise.” You leaned your head down towards the large creature, and gave him a soft smile. Yes, you were a bit... perturbed, when he smiled back at you, but you didn’t mind. You just wanted to make sure he stayed calm until the team arrived, so his struggling wouldn’t make his injury any worse.

“Th-“ Whatever he tried to do was interrupted by the familiar sound of a truck pulling up, which caused him to jump and turn in the direction of the sound. It was link and the others, pulling up to help whatever they’d been called for by you. And you could clearly see their surprise when they saw the bright red figure you were kneeling by. You could understand why, seeing as you had told them little white lies of it being a “rare species of shark”. Link was the only one who didn’t look a little bit scared. Then again, he leads this team and has seem some things before. He quietly motioned for the others to start helping the creature beside you onto a large stretcher, which you of course helped the process of by keeping him calm. As he was brought into the truck, you looked back to the shore he was washed up by. 

As the group drove away to the hospital, you saw another red figure poke its head out of the murky waters.


	2. Who are you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after performing every medical procedure they could on the new creature, dubbed “big red” by your superior, you got sent in to find out what might possibly be his diet, as well as check on how he may be recovering from the procedures. Why you? Because everyone else was either too busy or too afraid to go try to interact with him due to his monstrous form and size. You, however, were used to dealing with large carnivores such as “big red”  
> You just didn’t expect him to respond when you began talking about your morning.

** Next day **

The angry screams of your morning alarm were quick to alert you to the time of day, and caused you to jolt upright from your sleep. Was yesterday all a dream? Did you accidentally fall asleep during your day off, and had a crazy dream that you saw this weird shark person on the shore? You looked to your clock. 7:00. As consciousness slowly hit you like a steamroller, you paused to remember the events of the day before. _The ride in the truck to the hospital. The other figure in the water. Calling the rest of the veterinarian team because of an emergency. Removing the poacher’s spear from the big guy’s side. Slowing down his internal bleeding from the damage he’d taken._ None of it was a dream. In fact, you could still smell the salt water on your hands from when you had to calm him down so many times. _He was so scared. He looked like he’d never seen modern technology before..._ _he must be so scared alone in that weird environment. I just hope he hasn’t tried moving around too much._

  
You slowly pushed your groggy body out of bed, stretching with a yawn as soon as your feet hit the floor. Today’s another day. You quickly grabbed a hairbrush from wherever you could find it, ran it through your hair and grabbed a fresh set of clothes. The marine animals rose early, and you had to too, unfortunately. Humming one of your favorite songs, you changed out into your work outfit. It was a simple blue polo shirt with a small embroidered pattern near your right arm, and a shirt pocket near your left. Since you were mainly put on rehab duty, you normally wore a pair of shorts to prevent them from getting wet, but you always brought a pair of full length pants just in case you were needed by Olivia for a procedure. ‘ _Can’t expose our legs, now can we ____?_ ’ You thought to yourself, which brought a silent chuckle from your lips. You grabbed a breakfast bar from the pantry, waved your pets goodbye and started heading towards the HmH.   
  


** One short ride later **

You were almost immediately greeted by the local seagull, Harry, once you got to the HmH. “Sorry Harry, no fish scraps today. We’ve got a newcomer!” You called up to the bird, which caused what seemed to be a disappointment squawk. You laughed at the bird’s disappointment as he flew towards the back, where all of the animals undergoing treatment were held, as you stepped inside. Most people would just consider this place an aquarium, due to the fact they didn’t know what you all did for the sea creatures behind your closed doors. But sometimes your boss would hire a tour guide, who’d give all kinds of insight on how you all help the creatures in these tanks. As you walked through the currently empty building, you made your way to an especially large tank which was below ground. It was daily routine to visit this tank, since in here was someone very special. A baby whale shark passed by the glass, and you held your hand against it with a smile. “Hi Sarah. Sorry that I won’t be able to be with you much today... I need to check on the new guy,” You spoke to the glass as another, adult whale shark passed by. “And Hello to you too, Donna.”   
  


As you suspected, you found Olivia in the procedure room looking over what everyone had documented on the creature you’d brought in last night. Nothing about this made any sense to her, but she couldn’t just tear open the living creature to learn what makes it tick. You could see the brunette was so buried into her reading, she didn’t even notice you enter the room. You grinned, knowing this could be a great opportunity to scare her. So, you slowly crept up to her, and poked her right in the back. “What’cha reading, livi?” You taunted her in a sing-song tone, causing her to jump and nearly lose the papers she was holding as she turned to you. “Jeez, ___, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” She scolded you, bapping your head with the rolled up papers like you were a dog, causing you to laugh. “It’s just a joke, livi!” You two went back and forth with casual banter as she scanned the papers again and again. It always surprised you with how diligent she was with her work, even though you both had to get up pretty early.   
  


“Anything new on the big guy?” You finally got to the point on what you wanted to say. You wanted some, just _some_ confirmation that you weren’t crazy. If you were, then all of your hard work in college would go to waste! But, you got that confirmation when you heard Olivia sigh, and she handed you the papers. “Nothing new... we haven’t even found any records on what it is!” “Well, then I guess I wasn’t lying about him being a rare kind of shark...” You joked, making Olivia shake her head with a smile. “Link’s been looking over the big guy, but once we open up I’m pretty sure he’ll be needing to do something else. And since you were the one who called to bring big red in,” Olivia began, making random gestures with her hands, before gesturing right to you. “You’re gonna be in charge of him today. Mark’ll take care of your sharks while your gone.” Yep... you expected this. Sure, you didn’t expect mark to be the one taking care of your gam, but you expected to be taking care of the big newcomer.   
  


You saw how the others were afraid of him. Almost just as afraid as he was of them. The only one he seemed comfortable with so far was you, seeing as you had already proven to him you weren’t a threat, but you could still see he wasn’t completely comfortable like your gam was with you. And you could understand why. He was probably suddenly attacked, was nearly killed, and now he’s been put in this strange area. It’s too bad you didn’t even know where he came from... That means you couldn’t help him get back once he recovered. _The other red figure._ ... Maybe. That would all depend on if you could find them later. But right now... you needed to focus on the big guy. At least, after you got on something you’d be comfortable with getting wet. It was an unspoken rule you learned with the first dolphin.   
  


Once you got closer to the quarantine pool in your wet suit, you could see link hunched over its edge and peering in. No big guy was hiding from his gaze, and link was trying to find the bright red creature. “How do you hide in bright blue waters?” He huffed, grunting as he pushed himself up into a standing position. “Well maybe it’s because he doesn’t like you, link.” You taunted him as you got over to the edge of the pool, sitting cross-legged near the water. Once again the man huffed, and stomped away like a child. This got a rise of out you, almost making you fall face first into the water below. And you might have, if not for the webbed hand of ‘big red’ catching you before you fell. You looked down, once again seeing golden eyes stare at you intently, and you gave him a bright smile. You mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ as you pushed yourself from the ground. You looked to the array of fish buckets used for feeding and training various patients, walking over to choose one of the many kinds.   
  


“I’ve got a good feeling you’re hungry after last night. Poachers have some quality boats that are hard to get away from, and yet here you are; alive and recovering,” you started talking in the direction of the large red creature, with a small splash notifying you he’d popped his head out of the water. “Got a preference, red? We’ve got cod, salmon, bass, mackerel, trout-“ “Cod, if it doesn’t bring you any trouble.” Your list was abruptly cut off by the sound of a man speaking. You paused for a moment, taking in the sounds you’d just heard and slowly turning towards the big red creature. _Did... he just talk?_ Your mind went racing for a moment, but the creature’s head sunk just enough to cover his mouth. You sighed with slight confusion, and picked up the bucket of fresh cod. “I guess it’s cod then, big guy. You’re the guest after all.” You hefted the bucket off of the ground, making your way over to the quarantine pool again before dropping it at the edge. The sound made the big guy jump backwards, but he quickly shook of his alarm as he began feasting on the contents of the bucket you’d given him.   
  


_Guess I was right about him being hungry. I can’t blame him, there isn’t really any time to catch food if you’re running._ You simply continued to watch the humanoid being eat, and you definitely saw more resemblances to a shark than you had before. On the tail which trailed from his head, you spotted the signature dorsal fin belonging to any shark or dolphin. His maw was full of sharp teeth, which you could only assume would regrow if broken. But the rest of him... it was a mystery. Once he’d finished the contents of the bucket, he placed any skeletal remains back in and looked back up at you. “... Thank you again, little minnow.” This time you could see his mouth forming the words you heard. He sounded well mannered and energetic, with a bright smile to show off his gratitude towards you. You knelt there dumbfounded, staring at him.   
  


“You just talked.”


	3. Sidon, prince of the what?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wait, the shark person can actually talk? The most you expected was for him to be able to understand human speech, but not for him to respond.

You crouched at the edge of the quarantine pool, staring dumbfounded at the bright red creature in front of you. He... _talked._ No sign language, no animal calls or any sort of body language, but he spoke in a charming voice with words you could understand _perfectly_. It felt almost disturbing... _where the hell did my normal life go? Oh wait... it went out the second floor window and kept running after I started dealing with sharks._ You asked yourself internally, quietly chuckling at your own internal response. Meanwhile, your body continued spacing out as you thought over how this could happen, and you didn’t realize the red creature had approached you with a look of concern. “Erm- pardon, but... are you alright, little minnow?” The sound of the concerned creature’s words woke you from your spaced out state.   
  


You shook your head to get the thoughts away from it, before nodding in response to the creature’s question. “Yeah... I’m fine. Could you give me a moment?” You quickly asked, with the scaled red creature backing away from the edge of the pool. One he did, you cupped your hands, placed them in he water, and proceeded to use it to splash yourself in the face. This proved to you, with the relatively cold water against your face, that this was nowhere close to a dream. This was real, and you had somehow managed to find a sentient being and saved his live. After a few minutes of muttering to yourself, you looked up to the red creature. “Sorry about that... I’ve just... never seen anything like you. So... I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not when you said those things.” You explained to the red creature, and slipped your legs into the water. _Still cold, still real._   
  


“It’s fine, little minnow. In fact, I honestly expected much worse.” The creature explained, giving you a bright smile that, even though was full of sharp teeth, was contagious. However his expression changed quick, and you saw him hit himself in the head like one would when face palming. “Forgive me, where are my manors? I am Sidon, prince of the zora people.” He chuckled as he’d realized his “mistake”, and reached out a hand for a handshake. You hesitated, looking at the details of the limb he’d reached to you. It looked just like a human hand, albeit being bright red and bearing sharp claws in place of nails. His wrist was adorned with an intricate silver armband, decorated with what seemed to be aquamarine, that you had somehow overlooked before. You gripped his hand with a smile, grinning as he firmly shook yours vigorously. “______, with no real royal position, pleased to meet you.” You introduced yourself to the apparent prince “sidon”, your little quip bringing a rise out of him as he released your hand.   
  


Olivia would get quite the kick out of this if she learned the creature she’d dubbed “big red” was actually named “Sidon.” But for now, it would simply be your secret, seeing as he didn’t seem all too... ‘social’ around people other than you. _You’d get one hell of a kick once link found out, though._ You were brought out of your thoughts once you heard sidon grunt in pain, and cover the side where he’d been struck. This brought forth the instinct to go and see if any of the bindings which kept the wound closed had opened during his bout of laughter, and you pulled yourself into the pool to approach him. “It’s best that you don’t stress your body for now, after all we just fixed that up last night,” you explained, slowly closing the distance between you and the zora. As you got closer, he seemed to tower over you _entirely,_ but you didn’t shake.   
  


“May I?” You gestured to the injury, which he was covering almost desperately even though you saw no blood seep through his hands. After several moments of hesitance, he removed his hands to allow you to inspect his wound. _Not ripped. No other torn flesh._ You sighed in relief, gently putting your hand atop the bindings. “You just accidentally strained the muscle in your side. You’re fine, it’ll just be sore for a while. So just take it easy until we know you’re okay, alright?” You would’ve tried what you did when you found him to calm him down... If it weren’t for the fact he was ginormous compared to you. So instead, you moved the hand you had on his wound onto his chest and looked up to him with a soft smile; a gentle act of sincerity. Slowly but surely, the prince relaxed once more with your small acts of reassurance.   
  


Once the prince was calm and happy again, you hopped to the edge of the quarantine pool again and sat there so you two could talk. “Will you be leaving, little minnow?” He sounded like a sad puppy. It was honestly cute, seeing his reaction once you sat down. “No, sidon, I’m not leaving. I just wanted to get to eye level without having you move too much,” You finally responded, gently kicking your legs in the water with a smile. “Besides, I’m curious about some things.” “Oh? Such as what, little minnow?” He tilted his head in curiosity, and out of the corner of your eye you could see some sort of tail swaying behind him in the water. “Like: 1, why do you call me ‘little minnow’, 2, what’s a zora, and 3, where do you some from?” These we’re just a few of the questions that had come to your mind. 


	4. Tales of Hyrule and Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After your questions, both you and Sidon lost track of time telling stories from each other’s pasts and peoples. (Sorry that it took a while to get things out, school and mental things have been really messing me up)

How much time has passed? At this point, you didn’t know. You had gotten so lost in conversation with the zora prince over his home that time seemed to stop existing, as well as your job and your surroundings. Well, except for the pool you and Sidon were in, of course. He told stories that sounded like they could be out of a fairytale, of all kinds of creatures good and bad. Stories of champions, monsters of all degrees. It fascinated you to no end, and honestly made the stories you told seem rather... boring. But based on Sidon’s reactions, he didn’t think so. Instead of bustling cities with cars, cafes or skyscrapers, Hyrule had less advanced kingdoms and villages where if you wanted to go somewhere fast you’d have to tame a wild horse and check it into a stable. Or, in the zora’s case, you’d have to swim upriver or up a waterfall yourself.   
  


You scanned the area for the nearest clock, pausing the conversation for a moment. Once you finally found one, you realized at least an hour and a half had passed during the conversation. The displays were likely open to the public by now, and if the public learned something that looked so human was in the marine hospital they would get curious. Curious as in: pondering the existence of Bigfoot, curious. The idea made you quietly panic, and you slowly slipped out of the pool. “Sorry for cutting this short. I need to check something with my manager.” You apologized to the zora, who clearly pouted as you stood at the edge of the pool. “Is there something wrong?” The zora was clearly concerned as he asked this, and you shook your head in response. “I just want to check if there’s any plans for long term location.” 

  
You gave the zora a small wave and a smile as you walked off, quickly changing out of your wetsuit before heading to meet up with your colleague. As you paced forward, small anxious thoughts wormed their way into your head. ‘ _What if someone comes to try to dissect him? What if an army of zora just like him come to try to rescue him? Would he even like it if he stayed here? How long is it going to take him to heal? What if someone else catches him talking and they think he’s something that belongs in Area 51?_ ’ These thoughts ran through your heard like a school of fish trying to avoid predators, and they only made you speed up the pace. You opened the door to olivia’s personal office, and you could see her typing away at her computer. Emails, likely. “Hey, livi, I’ve gotta ask you something.” Your voice caused her to nearly jump out of her seat, getting a small Yelp from the woman. “_____, maybe knock next time?” Olivia chastised you for you sudden entry with a sigh. “But, go ahead and shoot.”   
  


“Do you have any plans to keep s- Big red here as a non-releasable?” You nearly slipped his name when you asked that, luckily you caught yourself before the second syllable. Olivia glanced over, an eyebrow peeked in questioning. “No, why do you ask?” “I just ask because some people might be pretty freaked out if they saw a big man shark in one of our tanks.” You half-lied, you were mainly just concerned whether or not some sort of fbi would get involved if anyone else saw him. It took so much for you to keep your composure as your superior pondered whether this was a lie or not, before she shrugged and went back to her computer. “Alright, well if that’s all you needed you can go ahead and leave.” She dismissed you, and you almost slammed the door shut behind you as you left. Oops, force of habit.   
  


After a quick lunch break; with your lunch being a plain sandwich you brought to work, you went back to check on the zora. You had to slip past link, who had tried questioning you about the new arrival, but you waved him off for the sake of the zora. After all, he seemed scared of link. You paced to the change room and wondered what he was doing while you went out. Best case scenario, he was probably swimming or floating around the quarantine pool, trying not to stress his wound. Worst case scenario? There was an invasion outside so a kingdom could get their prince back. As you slipped back into your wetsuit, you prayed to whatever gods would listen that it was closer to a best case scenario than worst case. You opened the door back outside, looking to see if any of the other workers had passed by. Once the coast was clear, you moved out.   
  


Just to be greeted by a similar fish woman standing at the edge of the pool, with a soft green glow enveloping her hands. 

**Author's Note:**

> It feels weird making a story on this website for the first time, but here’s to hoping it does well for it’s first few rounds around Ao3.  
> You can thank SidonLove and Dolphin tales for the inspiration for this story, if you enjoy it. But if you don’t don’t get on them for it.


End file.
